In America today,
girl power is one most popular topics for songs, books, and magazines. With
female millionaires such as Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé Knowles, as well as Janet Yellen who is listed as the sixth most
powerful person in the world, the U.S has finally opened its eyes to the fact
that women are equal to men. Yet, some of America’s most popular books and movies put sexist labels on their female
characters such as the damsel in distress or even stereotypical cooking and
cleaning roles.

Think of some of the most well known
movies in America. Take the classic Disney movie “Sleeping Beauty” for example.
Not once in the movie did princess Aurora ever take a leap of faith or make a
courageous choice. The entire movie the only eventful thing Aurora did was get
her and the rest of her kingdom cursed to an eternal sleep. In the end it was
prince Phillip who awoke the kingdom by kissing Aurora. Aurora isn’t the only princess to be the damsel in distress. Jasmine, Cinderella,
and Rapunzel in the end were all rescued by the oh so brave male characters. In
the movie Snow White, as soon as Snow arrives at the dwarves’ house, she starts to cook and clean as if that’s all women are capable of, when in reality, we are capable of so much
more.

Even in modern stories such as
Twilight, the main character Bella is portrayed as the damsel in distress in
very subtle ways. Bella is so desperately in love with her boyfriend Edward,
that whenever he is gone she goes into a deep depression. Without him she is
described as lost and empty, suggesting that without a boy in her life, life
isn’t worth living. She only starts to heal when the
other male lead Jacob rescues her from her depression.

Movies today have more discreet ways
of portraying female characters as the weaker ones. Spiderman, Iron Man,
Captain America, and Thor, all have strong female
characters with respectable jobs and lifestyles, yet the male characters always
ends up saving them in the most inconspicuous ways. In second Spiderman movie,
the newest version, Peter Parker tries to sacrifice himself to save his
girlfriend Gwen Stacy. That is simply another way for the male lead to be the
hero while the female lead stands by to watch.

With books
and movies only portraying female characters as helpless, we need more writers
to promote the fact that girls are just as capable as boys of saving the day.
Tremendous progress has been made with stories such as The Hunger Games and
Frozen where the main characters are independent females who save themselves as
well as others from the threat. But until it is clear to everyone that girls
are equal to boys, we need young authors and
playwrights to write stories where female characters are equally as capable of
saving the day as the male characters. We can change the way people view women
and girls one story at a time.

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The Lime Green Giraffe is a by-girls for-girls online publication of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. We publish two annual issues in August and February in addition to more frequent coverage of special Girl Scout events. Our content focuses on Girls, Info, Reports, Activities, Fun, Friends, and Excitement.